On the internet rumors, myths and urban legends are broadcast at full speed. But it is also an ideal means to deny them.
We only use 10% of our brain. A myth that refuses to die and that is even the starting point of recent films like Lucy. A man calls it “the greatest myth about the brain of history”: 48% of teachers believe it. The fact is that we use all area of our intelligence, even when we are latent. It is true that the brain is very plastic (we can live with medium) and that we do not use everything at the same time since some areas are specialized: when we walk, for example, the parts centered on motor activity are more active than others. But there is not a part of the brain that does not do anything and that is waiting for us to activate it to have.
Neurons cannot regenerate.
Since the 90s there is evidence that the brain has regeneration capacity, at least in some cases and even after a cerebral infarction,
One of the hemispheres of the brain is dominant and that determines whether we are more artistic or more rational.
Yes, it is true that there are areas of the brain that are specialized: the language is processed in the left hemisphere, for example. But it is not true that one of the hemispheres dominates over the other, regardless of how good one is with words. In this video there are five other myths about the brain:
The parts of the language are specialized in different flavors.
Although it is something that many of us learned as children, taste receptors are distributed throughout the language. As the newspaper notes, there could be differences in how men and women detect bitter, salty and acid flavors. In addition to that, there is a fifth flavor, umami, which means “tasty” and which is present in proteins.
Alcohol keeps you warm
The liquors give a sensation of heat, but alcohol lowers the temperature of the body, so it is really dangerous to drink alcohol when it is very cold. The same goes for coffee, according to Mental Floss.
And it kills neurons
Although some mornings it seems that the gin tonics of the previous night have destroyed our brain, alcohol does not get to kill neurons. Of course, excessive consumption for a long time can damage the connections between these cells and cause atrophy and degeneration (reversible)
Colds are caused by a virus that travels by air “through the droplets caused by talking, coughing or sneezing,” not by the cold itself. As the OCU ads, when it’s cold, we spend more time in closed spaces and in common areas (schools and offices). In addition, in regions with low humidity, the nostrils dry more easily. All this contributes to making it easier to get infected. (In addition and as we are notified on Twitter, the cold can weaken the immune system, which would facilitate colds).
